Sodas and energy drink are stacked and line the shelves in a grocery store Wednesday, May 18, 2016, in Springfield, Ill. (AP Photo/Seth Perlman)

(Newser)
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Energy drinks have been blamed for heart attacks and banned from college campuses, but they're now being studied for their potential to increase one's chances of getting hooked on drugs. And the news is not good: Writing in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, a University of Maryland School of Public Health researcher says their "results suggest that energy drink users might be at heightened risk for other substance use, particularly stimulants." Specifically, they found a significant increase in drug use among 25-year-olds who regularly consumed energy drinks in the five years prior—and the links to cocaine, alcohol, and prescription stimulants were especially strong.

Among their findings: Out of 1,099 participants recruited for the study while in college, more than half (51.4%) reported a sustained level of energy drink consumption for the years studied, reports Medical Express, and were "significantly more likely to be using stimulant drugs" at age 25. Even the 17.4% whose use was intermittent were more likely to use cocaine and prescription drugs than the 20.6% who never used energy drinks. By controlling for things like risk-taking behaviors, caffeine consumption, prior substance use, and demographics, researchers say they've singled out energy drinks as the culprit. The findings come right as Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer has called on the FDA to investigate Coco Loko, a caffeinated raw cacao snuff he recently called "cocaine on training wheels," per Quartz. (Apparently the health effects of snorting chocolate have yet to be studied.)

The research grant money is gone, write something linking a product to using drugs--quickly, we need more government grant money and the politicians want/need an excuse to lock up more minorities for an even longer time than they do now.

I grew-up and till 1991, I 26 year old, was living in Bulgaria. As the majority of the participants in Newser know, till 1990 Bulgaria was behind the Communist Iron Curtain, so was I. Up till that 1990, in Bulgaria there were no drugs, of any kind, I didn't even know what drugs do or even how do they look like, let alone me using or know anyone who does! Every once in a while, I would read in some of the main News Papers, that Foreign National drug courier, was apprehended on the Turkish border while attempting to smuggle drugs thru Bulgaria to Western Europe, then silence, he or she was simply gone! Such people never saw the inside of Court room, they disappeared. Rumor was that they were used to work in the Uranium mines, till death, with the bodies never even reaching the surface, being entombed where they died! So, that was that about drugs in Bulgaria till Communism fell and Democracy arrived! in 1991 I immigrated to USA, first stayed for few months in New York, then took the road south to Miami and have been here ever since. At first in Miami I become friendly with the Baker across the street. One day he invited me to the Bakery after closing, to hang out! I accepted, went there and had couple of beers, then the guy nonchalantly spread out the paraphernalia for what turned to be Crack-Cocaine! That was my first contact with anyone using any drugs. After that, my naivety gone, I realized that drugs are here, there, everywhere! People in all levels of our Society are using-abusing their Fix! Thankfully, I never succumbed to the drugs temptation, but way too many people have! Countless families have been destroyed, the Baker too, he died of overdose! Today, there is infinitely more variety of drugs, than back in 1991. The price is lower and purity higher! It is obvious that the War on Drugs is not working, look the results! Mountain of treasure has been wasted fighting it, and the Jails are jam packed with mostly drug offenders! Is such state of affairs serve any purpose? In essence, our Government is perpetuating the very definition of insanity where, doing the same thing over, and over, and over again, while expecting different results! There will be no change, till the people we elect in office are of different stock, enough with the same old Political clans whose only objective is to be in power, and not to serve the people who elected them!